The present invention is directed to leakage control. More particularly, the present invention is directed to leakage control for mobile processing units.
As technology scaling continues, transistors are producing more and more leakage current which effects power consumption. This is particularly important for mobile processing units (such as a portable computer) in which there is a limited amount of power available. Furthermore, leakage power takes a significant portion of a total power budget for a mobile processing unit.
Leakage current is especially a problem at higher temperatures. Leakage current may be managed based on standby leakage when a chip or processing unit is in an idle state and the temperature is not that high. However, leakage current in an active state may be much worse since the chip temperature may be very high causing the transistors to leak more. For example, a sub threshold leakage of a metal-oxide semiconductor field effect transistor (MOSFET) may be increased up to ten times when the temperature is raised from room temperature to 100xc2x0 Celsius. It is therefore extremely desirable to control active leakage current in low-power mobile processing units.
The foregoing and a better understanding of the present invention will become apparent from the following detailed description of example embodiments and the claims when read in connection with the accompanying drawings, all forming a part of the disclosure of this invention. While the foregoing and following written and illustrated disclosure focuses on disclosing example embodiments of the invention, it should be clearly understood that the same is by way of illustration and example only and that the invention is not limited thereto.